“Sure,” you might say, “but ummm, Angela, those people are fictional.”

Of course they are. But entertainment loosely reflects reality, and gen x- and y-ers are increasingly creating friend families. I’ve experienced it firsthand, and I’m guessing, so have you. As we move from our home towns, states, or even countries to pursue our goals, we arrive with baggage—physically and mentally—in tow, but no one to help us lug it (or sort through and purge it, whatever the case may be). That’s where friend families come in.

We band together, support each other, and lend each other a hand. We become families in the truest sense of the word. So much so, in fact, that my daughter has more aunts, uncles, and cousins than I could possibly count. Do eyebrows raise when my biological family hears me call them that? Sure, but my friend “family members” have worked to earn those titles. And they wholeheartedly deserve them.

Differences in our blood do not change our shared experience. If anything, I’d say it strengthens it over that of someone who is required to endure all of the quirks and bumps accepted with an inherited connection.

With friends that are family, they are making the choice over and over again to be there for you, thick and thin, good and bad, easy and not so easy.

And for that, I’d like to extend a very appreciative THANK YOU to everyone in my Seattle, Chicago, Mankato, and Northwestern “families.” I’m so happy to have you as my sisters, brothers, parents, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

My kid has 27 cousins (like, real blood/marriage related cousins) but none of them live very close by so we are very much dependent on and grateful for our “friend family” here. And now that Kiddo is in school and we are meeting more families from the neighborhood, our network is growing even larger. I know it might have become a little trite to say so, but it really does “take a village.”